Real World Applications of Intent Data in B2B Sales

All the savvy B2Bmarketers are turning their attention to intent data, why so? They don’t want to sprinkle little water everywhere in the hope that something might grow. In other words, they don’t want to target all the leads without knowing whether any of them is interested in buying or not. In short, marketers want to use intent data in their marketing strategy. That is why, we will see in this article, the real world application of intent data in B2B sales.

Before discussing anything let’s have a look at how an effective marketing and sales process is carried out.

• Define your market –

The first thing you need to do is create your buyer’s persona and align the sales and marketing efforts.

• Identify your target accounts –

You also need to identify the key decision makers and target accounts that fit into your ideal buyer’s profile. This is the time to qualify your leads.

• Prioritize and predict –

Once you qualify your leads, you need to check their propensity to buy in other terms score the leads. At this stage, you focus on the accounts that are active.

• Finally, personalize –

Once you have all the details, you can personalize the messages and engage with your leads in a more personalized way. Once this is achieved, you will be all set to implement your marketing strategy.

In an ideal sales process, you approach the ideal prospects and later qualify them. The intent data comes into the role when you have to prioritize the active accounts. It lets you know the active accounts way before they come to have a conversation with your sales team. As intent data is more informative and real, you can use it to score the leads with 100 percent accuracy. Using granular filters and doing in-depth analysis can help to get the needed insights.

Why do we need the intent data?

Intent data is data that helps you understand what your competitor’s prospects are doing. Yet another definition of intent data – It is a digital footprint that organizations or people leave on the internet.

Uses of intent data –

There are so many activities that can be tracked using intent data which can help you know the needs and demands of your leads. Intent data allows you to respond to customer’s sentiments which ultimately boost your brand’s perception.

Whether it is account-based marketing, trade shows, email campaigns, accurate data is very essential to know the buyer’s intent. You need accurate data to –

Select Target Audience

Do the Segmentation

And to deliver personalized messages

Having data that is constantly updated can keep you away from being blacklisted because of outdated data. This will increase click-through rates, and give you more qualified leads.

Intent data is also used to gain insights into the keywords that are being searched online. When the individuals search for information online, they perform several actions such as downloading whitepapers or searching for particular keywords. When a particular industry or a person is consuming a lot of data, you will be alarmed that they are interested in your products and you can score the prospects (not leads!) on the basis of their digital footprint. So the predictions are solely based on pieces of evidence which reveal readiness to purchase. You can use intent data to reach potential customers while they are actively searching for the solutions.

According to one study, almost 70 percent of B2B marketers fail to meet their expectations. They think if they target a broad group of people, at least a few of them will buy their products and services. You can optimize the customer’s journey using intent data and keep away from wasting your ad budget. If you wait for the prospect to show an interest in buying, you save a lot of your ad budget that is spent on those who are not interested in your products.

Intent data-driven marketing is more than Display advertising as it doesn’t just display ads to someone who is browsing. Intent data goes a step ahead by attracting the audience who are searching for the solutions.

Previously B2B marketing strategies were created only based on job titles and persona. With intent data, you can track the activities of the visitors to other’s websites as well. You don’t have to worry if there will be any change in people’s behavior.

Guesswork is no more required as intent data is based on facts which means that the data is not collected based on complex algorithms. Intent data lets you identify your prospect’s interest in buying using real-time data.

Don’t take the leads that marketing provides you but do the smart things to generate qualified leads. Engage with your prospects with a well researched and informed point of view using intent data today. Contact us for more information.

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Author Vikas Bhatt

Vikas is the co-founder of OnlyB2B ITES Pvt Ltd and a Demand Generation cum Data Cleansing Expert. He has 10+ years of experience in B2B Lead Generation, Data Mining, and Content Syndication.
Say hi on vikas.bhatt@only-b2b.com

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How to Get Better at B2B Lead Generation
B2B Lead Generation is one of the most challenging part is what all the marketers agree upon. Strategies used in B2B lead generation evolve as companies gain new insights into what does and doesn’t work.